Volunteers to help the pelicans
The third edition of the volunteer conservation camp organized by the Directorate of Persina Nature Park, under the project "Pelikan way of life", has passed. The camp was attended with great enthusiasm by students from Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen, the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology, students from the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, Varna, Medical University of Varna, joined by students from the Secondary School "Dimitar Blagoev", Svishtov, Mathematical High School “Geo Milev”, Pleven, Secondary School "Dimcho Debelyanov", Belene, Bulgaria.
For 4 days, 25 young men and women took part in actions related to improving the condition and maintenance of habitats on the territory of Persina Nature Park. Together they prepared reeds for the nesting places of pelicans on Persin Island, cleaned the river "Barata" from plastic waste, which fills with water the Kaikusha marsh in the "Kaikusha" Protected area, improved the condition of the bird watching tower in the Ramsar site "Belen Islands Complex", participated in monitoring amphibians and fish in small remaining water bodies of the Persin Island wetland and visited a natural floodplain forest on Magaretsa Island during a short research expedition.
In the program of the camp was included an educational module, in which speakers and presenters were Eng. Vesselin Koev - Deputy Director and Daniela Mihova - Chief Biodiversity Expert, part of the team of "Persina" Nature Park, as well as guest lecturers Stoyan Mihov - Head of "Water" Program at WWF - Bulgaria and Svilen Cheshmedjiev - BSPB - Coordinator of the office in Svishtov. The educational module covered the topics of the protected areas included in the national ecological network, broken through the scope of the territory and the specifics of the Persina Nature Park, the history of the restoration of the nesting sites of Dalmatian pelicans on Persin Island. The project "Pelican way of life" was presented. The action of the attempt to rescue a captured male of the Beluga species (Huso huso) during the last days was shown, etc. The guest speakers introduced the sturgeon family, the results of the WWF Living Planet Report 2024 were briefly presented and finally the results of the satellite telemetry of the Dalmatian pelicans over the last few years were presented.
The results of the work of the volunteers in the conservation camp for 2024 are: prepared for the new nesting season more than 150 m 2 nesting area for the pelicans in both Peschina Marsh and Martvo Marsh on Persin Island; collected from the bed of the Barata River 90 bags of 120 liters of plastic waste; renovated a 4.5 m, wooden monitoring tower in front of the Peschina Marsh on Persin Island.
The team of "Persina" Nature Park would like to thank all the volunteers who worked from their hearts for the conservation of wildlife.
The volunteer conservation camp is part of the activities that "Persina" Nature Park Directorate implements under the international project "Conservation of the Dalmatian Pelican along the Black-Sea Mediterranean Flyway", "Life of the Pelican" (LIFE18/NAT/NL/000716), funded by the EU Life Program.
Text and photos:
Persina Nature Park Directorate
Oct. 23, 2024
